Wish List

So, for all I know the movie could be dreadful when it is released, but I already love the soundtrack to "Eat, Pray, Love". Eddie Vedder, Joao Gilberto, Marvin Gaye, et. al. It's perfectly relaxing and hip with a few fun punches. I'll take one, please!

Inception...

So we went to see Inception last night.

Unfortunately, the folks at the United Artists Theater at Market Fair didn't really seem to think that for the $35 I spent on tickets, air conditioning was necessary.

Nothing is worse than stadium seating with zero air circulation and high humidity.

FYI, if the last movie starts at 10:20pm, you should keep the air on until it's over!

Okay, that's enough about the theater... how about the movie?

I have to say, Hot Tub Time Machine was more entertaining.

I love Leonardo DiCaprio, and the other actors did well. The effects were good-- but the movie was overly long. There were no real twists to the plot-- it was basically a straight forward bit of story telling. It was kind of boring, after a while.

But. The previews! I'm very interested now in seeing The Social Network. And, I really like the song they use in the trailer-- it is "Creep" by Radiohead as sung by Scala and Kolacny Brothers a Belgian choir that covers pop music. Pretty cool.

Chris Isaak!

Yes, it's that time of year again-- Chris Isaak is on tour and he's made his way to the Big Apple!

This year, the concert was at the Nokia Theater in Times Square. It's a cool venue-- kind of like a theater with a night club atmosphere.

I had ordered our tickets back in April and really didn't have a good idea of where exactly our seats were... and then we got there and we were smack dab in the middle of the seventh row! I've seen Chris Isaak four times and these were the best seats I've ever had!

Thus, thanks to the Mom for letting me borrow her little camera-- I was able to get some great photos. (Let's not discuss how I also used the "voice recorder" function on my iPod to "pirate" Wicked Game. Who knew an iPod Touch was such a versatile little gizmo?

One of the cool things, too about the Nokia Theater is that in addition to the bar areas, they also have a cafe. I got a great little Red Velvet cupcake-- a nice way to start the show. Also, this year Marc Broussard opened for Chris. While some of Marc Broussard's music sounded familiar, I really have no recollection of having heard of him before-- but it was a pleasant surprise. He had a great voice and some terrific guys in his band. Over all he put on a great opening act.

As for Chris Isaak and Silvertone-- they always do a great job. Just a fun, entertaining show.

If you like his music and want to get a sense of what the live performances are like you can check out his latest cd: Live at the Fillmore. It has mostly the same song set as what we heard at our concert-- and it's all great music!

At the end of the show the guys in the band all toss their guitar picks into the audience. I didn't score one myself, but while we were walking out a man gave me one that he had gotten... so that was pretty cool! On the downside, as we were leaving the theater the escalator we were on broke down. This wouldn't have been a big deal had it only stopped, but instead it actually started going backwards-- which was a little wacky. It seemed to pick up more and more speed as we got closer to the bottom and the Husband and I had to literally jump off of the escalator so that we didn't just hit the bottom. It's things like that which keep life interesting.

Anyhoo. Afterwards we went and had a late dinner at a great place in the Stay Hotel called Aspen Social. The Husband got tuna tartare deviled eggs with wasabi (!) Overall it was really tasty and a nifty atmosphere as well. I highly recommend it!

Random Update

I come from a heritage of people who put things "in a safe place" to make it easier to find later and then promptly forget where said "safe place" is. Case in point-- I have been looking for my "Very Best of Sheryl Crow" cd for four years.

Yes, four years. Now I swear that during this time I have found the empty case in random locations, but never the disc. This would all be fine (thanks to iTunes) but for the fact that I had been wanting to import to my iPod the song "Picture" and since it is a duet with Kid Rock (and he apparently has some issue with Apple) its unavailable. I was determined not to buy another copy of the cd and then the other night I looked through my cd stockpile and there was the case and the disc sitting nice as could be. Like it had just gotten back from some prolonged vacation (possibly with Jimmy Buffet and all of the Songs You Know by Heart).

Finally, the song is imported.

Latest other musical acquisition? A pop-y thing called "This is How it Ends" courtesy of the on-hold muzak at the Saks 800 line.

Hmpf.

I used to love Mel Gibson. Hell, I even convinced the Mom to drive all the way to Maine as part of our "East Coast College Tour" so I could sneak on to the set of one of his movies.

Have you heard those tapes that his latest gal pal recorded?

The poor bugger has really lost his mind.

One just hopes that his ex wife is enjoying her share of that divorce settlement. From the sounds of it, I think she deserves it!

Have You Seen...

New York State's new license plates?

I just have two words for you: "Blind Governor".

Ugh.

(photo courtesy of NY1.com)

Happy Fourth!

This year we hit up the fireworks display in Princeton (hosted by the "Spirit of Princeton" organization) on Thursday, July 1st.

We had a nice Whole Foods picnic and enjoyed a great show.

Then for the actual Fourth of July we went to DC!
We stayed at the Willard Intercontinental on Pennsylvania Ave.

Very close to the White House... and very near the Mall!

We got to visit the Museum of American History, and see Julia Child's kitchen...

And, just as we were about to get in the elevator at our hotel to go downstairs to see the fireworks, we got invited by the concierge into the "VIP Viewing Area" for the fireworks! It turns out that one of the suites wasn't occupied and guests of the hotel were invited to watch the fireworks in air conditioned comfort! (This was a very nice thing, since when we went downstairs after the Fireworks to get some snacks, it was like Fort Apache The Bronx outside-- people were setting off Roman Candles, people were throwing water balloons from 10 stories up, and there were no police to be seen!) ;)